Sunday, July 1, 2012

Headlight Bucket Crack repair

So a while back, I was detailing parts and I took these pics of my headlight bucket that I was trying to repair.  I saw patch kits online but found this product called HTS-2000 http://www.aluminumrepair.com/ and it is sort of pricy for a pack of rods, but I figured it's cheaper than buy a new bucket.


You have to build a trough out of steel metal to hold the molten aluminum.  It's very tricky but once you practice a bit, you can figure it out.  And the metal melts down hill so it took me a few tries to get it right.  It was only a crack I thought I could fix but after the heat, it turned to mush.  So I built the trough and clamped it down.  Heat it very slow and take your time.  It's not like plumbing / soldering copper pipes which is easier than this.



This angle worked best.  Flow it on.




Took the casting / trough off.








Cleaned up and drilled the hole.  Stronger than the original.  So they say.



2 comments:

  1. Wow! So you basically remade your tab out of molten aluminum? That's awesome! You went way above and beyond on this. Nice work.

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    1. Thanks Alex! Those aluminum repair sticks worked great once I got the hang of it.

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